BJJ Instructor demotes student

[sean applegate]

Im ok with a contest to see who can keep it the realest, it'd be a nice break from "who can fake it the best".

[Chris Herzog]

Im ok with a contest to see who can keep it the realest, it'd be a nice break from "who can fake it the best".

Seriously.

[David Rosado]

Ty. Yeah the feel I get is it was a message to the previous school. Rather mean and humiliating in my opinion to post it. I fear these broadcast punishment type videos might become the start of a trend that could turn prospective new jiu jitsu students off from ever starting jiu jitsu if they feel its a hostile environment.

I hear you, but I believe that there are plenty of new student friendly schools out there. For every Ralph Gracie school there's a "keep it playful" school. The way I see it, teachers are teachers. They're free to teach and rank how they please. And school owners are business owners. They're free to run their business how they please. I'm not really concerned about new students. I do think quality control is important though. So I have no problem with the video.

[NotReady]

Im ok with a contest to see who can keep it the realest, it'd be a nice break from "who can fake it the best".

I mean, I agree, but I feel like a lot of these things are being done to advance someone's profile or get clicks rather than "keep it real." By all means, beat the crap out of the person, tell them what belt to wear, but this grandstanding is a bit much. That's just my opinion. I believe in getting the word out if there is some fraud instructor, but even then, plenty of people have been "exposed" and keep on doing what they do. To me, telling your boy to videotape you yelling at or scolding someone seems less than real and more reality TV.

[HerbChao]

Rather mean and humiliating in my opinion to post it. I fear these broadcast punishment type videos might become the start of a trend that could turn prospective new jiu jitsu students off from ever starting jiu jitsu if they feel its a hostile environment.

PErsonally I'm not sure what would be worse, having the breakup with a girlfriend (or a rejection) being broadcast or this.....I can't understand the words but I guess most of us can make out the gist based on tone and the action itself.

[Chris Herzog]

PErsonally I'm not sure what would be worse, having the breakup with a girlfriend (or a rejection) being broadcast or this.....I can't understand the words but I guess most of us can make out the gist based on tone and the action itself.

Don't promote yourself and theres nothing to worry about.

[Mikael Chay]

I can't understand the words but I guess most of us can make out the gist based on tone and the action itself.

Couldn't understand every single word but here's a basic summary of what was said:

They start by stating that at their academy, you have to deserve a belt to be allowed to wear it.

Then, they give a bit of background to explain what they're about to do.
The guy they're demoting used to train at their academy as a blue belt. He was a very tough blue belt giving trouble to many guys there. They promoted him to purple but then, he left just after that, went to what they say were shady academies where you can pay to get promoted faster, and came back with a brown belt.

But after training with him again, they're of the opinion that he is not on a brown belt level yet, which is why they've decided to demote him to purple belt. It's their condition for him to keep training at their academy.

They then emphasize that he'll need to train a bit more to get to brown but that he'll now be a tough purple belt.

After that, they explain that the guy in question agreed on the demotion and that he's aware he's not on a brown belt level. While removing his brown belt and putting the purple belt on him, they repeat that his purple belt is well deserved, as he's a tough purple now, and that he'll need to train a bit more to get to brown.

At the end, they state that they wanted to make an example of what they consider an ugly practice and that people shouldn't try to jump steps to get promoted faster.

[Arman Fathi]

I wasn't speaking about this particular situation, and no I don't think it your situation warrants a demotion. However, if I gave a student specifics to work on before getting promoted, they left and were promoted by someone at a different school, and they came back and those skills still hadn't been improved I wouldn't accept that promotion in my school, and he/she would come back at the same belt that left with. Especially if I suspect the only reason they left is because I hadn't promoted them yet.

Couldn't understand every single word but here's a basic summary of what was said:

They start by stating that at their academy, you have to deserve a belt to be allowed to wear it.

Then, they give a bit of background to explain what they're about to do.
The guy they're demoting used to train at their academy as a blue belt. He was a very tough blue belt giving trouble to many guys there. They promoted him to purple but then, he left just after that, went to what they say were shady academies where you can pay to get promoted faster, and came back with a brown belt.

But after training with him again, they're of the opinion that he is not on a brown belt level yet, which is why they've decided to demote him to purple belt. It's their condition for him to keep training at their academy.

They then emphasize that he'll need to train a bit more to get to brown but that he'll now be a tough purple belt.

After that, they explain that the guy in question agreed on the demotion and that he's aware he's not on a brown belt level. While removing his brown belt and putting the purple belt on him, they repeat that his purple belt is well deserved, as he's a tough purple now, and that he'll need to train a bit more to get to brown.

At the end, they state that they wanted to make an example of what they consider an ugly practice and that people shouldn't try to jump steps to get promoted faster.

See I can understand it now. He got promoted to purple by his team then went off and got a brown from a less than legit source. Loyalty issues aside, his old team doesn't have to recognize it if they don't feel it's warranted from a technical standpoint. And at least he was on board with going down a rank and they consulted together. There's some discord on this thread about whether or not this video should have been made, but what it does is set an important precedent in regards to issues of this nature. For sure what it does is send a message to the school that promoted him to brown. Kind of a slap in the face, if you ask me. Obviously it's a case by case, and for all we know there have probably been cases out there where guys have transferred to legit schools and received a promotion and returned w/o it being an issue. Since we haven't seen it videotaped, no one hears about it. To my understanding, this specific case is precisely what Zog alluded to earlier about having a student jump ship and returning with a promotion, only to still not meet the criteria that he originally said that his student needed to meet to get that promotion in the first place. Makes sense now.

[David Rosado]

Couldn't understand every single word but here's a basic summary of what was said:

They start by stating that at their academy, you have to deserve a belt to be allowed to wear it.

Then, they give a bit of background to explain what they're about to do.
The guy they're demoting used to train at their academy as a blue belt. He was a very tough blue belt giving trouble to many guys there. They promoted him to purple but then, he left just after that, went to what they say were shady academies where you can pay to get promoted faster, and came back with a brown belt.

But after training with him again, they're of the opinion that he is not on a brown belt level yet, which is why they've decided to demote him to purple belt. It's their condition for him to keep training at their academy.

They then emphasize that he'll need to train a bit more to get to brown but that he'll now be a tough purple belt.

After that, they explain that the guy in question agreed on the demotion and that he's aware he's not on a brown belt level. While removing his brown belt and putting the purple belt on him, they repeat that his purple belt is well deserved, as he's a tough purple now, and that he'll need to train a bit more to get to brown.

At the end, they state that they wanted to make an example of what they consider an ugly practice and that people shouldn't try to jump steps to get promoted faster.

That's why I don't think this is that bad. Honestly, I think it's GOOD for BJJ.

[Liquidrob]

Shouldn't have video'd it, using the student to go after another academy IMO

Belts in BJJ are subjective anyway, someone's "tough purple" is another places Brown, or you roll up to the Mendes Bros academy and he might get smoked by blue belts, that's bjj

But whatever, as Kimbo Slice said "it is what it is"